Dolores Archaeological Program Technical Reports, DAP-009: Preliminary Report on Excavations at Marshview Hamlet (Site 5MT2235)

Site 5MT2235, a small Anasazi habitation located northwest of Dolores, Colorado, was excavated during the 1978 field season as part of the Dolores Project Cultural Mitigation Program. Field operations were conducted from 24 July through 2 November. During this period, University of Colorado crew members, along with personnel of the Water and Power Resources Service Youth Conservation Corps and Young Adult Conservation Corps programs, excavated and recorded a small pitstructure and associated surface features representing a small unit hamlet. Dendrochronological dates and artifacts associated with the site indicate it was occupied during the last half of the eleventh century AD (Sundial Phase).

Materials and artifacts collected from this Sundial Phase site suggest the occupants were a family of horticulturalists subsisting on crops grown in fields near the site. Faunal remains indicate that in addition to gardening the occupants augmented their diet by hunting small game. Further analysis of environmental and vegetal samples may indicate the exploitation of additional resources available in the vicinity of the hamlet.